Human Dimensions Research Lab
Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries
Institute of Agriculture
The University of Tennessee
Dr. Mark Fly, Director,
Susan Schexnayder, Associate Director
974-7979, markfly@utk.edu
974-5495, schexnayder@utk.edu
The Human Dimensions Research Lab was founded in 1993 and has been in
operation for 16 years. The mission of the lab is to use social science research
methods to address issues and opportunities in agriculture, natural resources, and the
environment. We are a fully operational research center providing complete services for
telephone, mail, web, panel and on-site intercept surveys as well as facilitation of focus
groups and public meetings. Dr. Fly, Director of the Lab, received his survey training
from the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social
Research, and has conducted surveys for over thirty years.
Participatory democracy is the philosophical basis for our survey work. We serve
the mission of the land grant university by giving the people across Tennessee and
around the nation an opportunity to provide their input into agriculture and natural
resource management decisions and the policy development process while providing
valuable research data for ourselves and other scientists within and outside the
university. Each telephone interviewer is monitored and evaluated daily and overall
performance is evaluated weekly. We provide data security and four levels of quality
control: observation, listening, real time viewing of data entry, and data cleaning. The
HDLab is a fully computerized lab with 16 workstations utilizing a Computer Aided
Telephone Interviewing (CATI) system.
We conduct research under contract with outside agencies, e.g. the USFS, also
NOAA, Center for Disease Control, EPA, NPS, and ERS through the USFS, NPS, TVA,
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Tennessee Division of Forestry, Tennessee
Department of Environment of Conservation, and NGOs, such as the Tennessee
Forestry Association, the National Parks and Conservation Association, and the
American Rivers Council, etc. The Lab has received over $9 million in research funding.
Our Lab also provides consulting services on survey design and development,
and facilitates data collection for graduate students, professors and research centers
within UTIA and across the University. We have provided services to administrators
and/or faculty and staff in all three units of the Institute of Agriculture (Experiment
Station, Extension, and College). Within the University System, we have conducted
surveys and/or provided consultation on survey design, methodology and sampling for
the Center for Profitable Agriculture, Agri-Industry Modeling and Analysis Group, Public
Horticulture, Entomology and Plant Pathology, the Forest Products Center, Center for
Wildlife Health, the Natural Resource Policy Center, the Social Science Research
Institute, Center for Water Resources (now ISSE), and Environmental Sociology.
Staff: April Griffin, Call Center Manager
Three Call Center Supervisors
32 Interviewers
Experienced Field Staff as Needed
274 Ellington Plant Sciences
Knoxville, TN 37996-4563
974-6864, amarion@utk.edu